Time Of Possession Discussion Thread

[Jukeman]

Quote: Originally Posted by nd2727

CPU clock management has been terrible for as long as I can remember. People seem to be paying more attention to the problem this year. Hopefully EA will finally fix it.

Which is really a good thing for EA, they had so many other problems before that this issue was not that important, now it stands out like a bad sore because they're really improving.


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[hee163]

This is NOT just a problem with supersim. Playing against any team that doesn't have a 70-80%+ rushing attack, they don't use up nearly enough time. Pass heavy teams are really bad for this.

The other problem is if the CPU rushing game isn't doing pretty well they seem to completely abandon it, which makes D easier, which makes it harder for them to sustain drives etc etc.

If you shut a team's rushing game down early on you can run up 3-4 times more TOP than the CPU no problem.

EA really should fix this. Make the CPU much more aware of and conservative with the clock.

[dochalladay32]

I played Army against Texas-Arlington and held the ball 3 times as long... now yes, I would prefer it to be more evenly matched, but each of my plays took twice as long and I dominated. If at the end of the game, the number of plays are correct, I don't see why TOP should be such a big deal, at least in games in which you are playing.

For things involving SuperSim, it needs massive work. It would be nice if the computer did wind the clock more in regular games that you actually play against the computer, but like I said, to me, the number of plays is the key in those types of games.

[bnb]

i actually started my own thread on this last night. haha.

i began some experimenting last night and had similar results. i merged my thread with this one and my findings are below:

since supersim has such a tangible impact on the game this year due to the fact that it's almost a necessity if you plan on being a OC or DC, i thought i'd run some tests and see how accurate the mode when it comes to time of possession, number of plays/game, and minutes/play. i'm not too concerned with stats at the moment, but i will dig into this possibly as soon as tomorrow.

bear with me as i'm not a statistician nor a math-whiz.

i ran 5 supersimmed games so far, each at 8 minute quarters, default sliders, same teams, field, and weather every game. my choice of 8 minute quarters was due to the fact that most people here seem to agree that it provides the most realistic number of plays.

each game was between notre dame and michigan state at notre dame. i also rounded up or down to the closest full minute.

in real life last year, oklahoma had the highest number of plays/game at 87. they averaged 2.9 plays/minute of possession. stanford had the highest average possession time/game at 34 minutes and averaged 2.05 play/minute.

game 1- MSU: 68 plays T.O.P. 12:48 (5.23 plays/minute)
ND: 88 plays T.O.P. 19:12 (4.63 plays/minute)

game 2- MSU: 84 plays T.O.P. 18:40 (4.42 plays/minute)
ND: 72 plays T.O.P. 13:20 (5.53 plays/minute)

game 3- MSU: 76 plays T.O.P. 16:31 (4.47 plays/minute)
ND: 72 plays T.O.P. 15:29 (4.8 plays/minute)

game 4- MSU: 71 plays T.O.P. 15:30 (4.73 plays/minute)
ND: 81 plays T.O.P. 16:27 (5.06 plays/minute)

game 5- MSU: 79 plays T.O.P 17:08 (4.64 plays/minute)
ND: 77 plays T.O.P 14:52 (5.13 plays/minute)

[nd2727]

Quote: Originally Posted by dochalladay32

I played Army against Texas-Arlington and held the ball 3 times as long... now yes, I would prefer it to be more evenly matched, but each of my plays took twice as long and I dominated. If at the end of the game, the number of plays are correct, I don't see why TOP should be such a big deal, at least in games in which you are playing. For things involving SuperSim, it needs massive work. It would be nice if the computer did wind the clock more in regular games that you actually play against the computer, but like I said, to me, the number of plays is the key in those types of games.

Supersim is definitely a glaring problem. The problem with CPU clock management is not that the total number of plays is off. That can be addressed by changing the quarter length. The real problem is that the CPU does not manage the clock the way it should. Snapping the ball with 20+ seconds on the play clock with a large lead early in the 4th quarter does not make sense. The CPU is giving its opponent extra possesions when it should be trying to shorten the game. It is like playing against an opponenet that doesn't understand football. With the exception of a few teams that run some sort of no-huddle hurry up all game, teams don't even snap the ball that quickly early in the game. For starters, EA should change the amount of time on the clock when CPU teams snap the ball at each tempo level (conservative: 1-3 seconds, normal: 3-8 seconds, aggressive: 15-22 seconds if they huddle).

[Special27K]

This, too many A+/A coaches, and dynamic conference prestige are the biggest problems

T.O.P. is possibly the biggest one as the A+ coaches we can half fix ourselves possibly and the conference prestige we've dealt with. But, T.O.P. directly affects a new feature in a big way for us sim guys.

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

Firdt off, the game is designed and based around the five minute quarter. This is why when you play any other quarter length the, everything starts to feel off.

In my opinion they need to get rid of the option for Quarter lengths and replace it with 4 different presets all with different Strategic AIs so they manage the clock differently.

Ie 5 minute -what we have now
8 minute - Snap the ball with 20-25 on playclock
10 minute - Snap ball with 15-20 on playclock
15 minute - Snap ball with 10 or less second on clock

As I typed that I realized a Madden-esque accelerated clock does exactly that. Accelerated Clock please!

As for supersim, I like the idea of doubling play length. True it is not accurate, but it is a simple fix that would make the game better.

[nd2727]

The game already has a madden-style accelerated clock, sort of. If the tempo is set to conservative, time will run off before you break the huddle much like it does in madden. I will give EA credit for the runoff of about 8 seconds to simulate getting into the huddle. That was a good idea. It would help a lot if there was also some runoff at normal tempo. The concept is there, it just needs to be fine tuned.